Project Lore

Some people like to equate details with polish.  Either way you take it, as a synonym or as an aspect of polish, the inclusion of them makes video games better.  Blizzard has a long-standing reputation for going above and beyond in the company's titles, which is why they are still played years, hell, possibly decades after their initial release.  During my initial run through Wrath of the Lich King's quests I mainly focused on the designs and stories implemented as I grinded to level 80.  Now that I am there, or on my second run through with the priest, I can focus more on the small details instead of worrying about my XP per hour.  Yes, I take the game that far. I've written almost a week's worth of articles on the Argent Tournament.  They have spanned the gauntlet of guides to love and boredom.  I've spent thirty minutes to an hour a day in Icecrown killing scourge, Chillmaw and riding horsies all in the name of the Argent Crusade and the five other factions.  Three days, I've only missed three days of dailies.  Yet, I somehow never realized that the damned Cultists actually ride on Chillmaw's back and head.  I always thought that he summoned them during the fight.  Definitely a detail that I just flat out missed. That was my own stupidity though.  One particular that recently caught my attention on Solidsagart was the Murloc costume.  Any interaction with murlocs is a welcome one, and the chance to pose as one was something that I couldn't pass up.  After donning the spare suit I took off towards the cavern to complete my mission of deceit and death.  Secretly, I have always hoped that the murloc race was bidding its time before the scaled, two-legged race took over Azeroth.  I realized during the quest that either they aren't intelligent at all, or their senses haven't adapted for above water scenarios.  Just look at how awful the suit is.  The stiching is obvious, it waggles around my body in an awkward fashion and my seeing sphere is falling out of its socket!  How the hell did they let me get to Claximus without being harassed? There are hundreds of these small gems spread throughout the game, so let's share as much of them with each other as possible.  As noted, even "obvious" things may not be so apparent to other players who A) aren't very observant, B) too busy with their stabbing, C) pressed for time, or D) too busy leveling.  What say you PL fans?  What is your favorite small detail from Wrath, or all time?

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Just last week, I was wondering who owned WoW.com and why Blizzard didn't just lay down a few hundred thousand or even million to pick it up. The acronym "WoW" is very common and I'd rather type "wow.com" into my address bar than "worldofwarcraft.com" to get to things like forums and account management. Well, my question was recently answered. The owners of WoW Insider picked up WoW.com and now WoW Insider has been re-branded WoW.com. They have a new layout and lots of new features. There are three methods of registration for WoW.com. You can make a new registration or login using Facebook Connect or using your AIM account. I've had a good experience using my Facebook account on other sites, like Digg, so I went ahead and did that. I didn't have to enter any information; I instantly had an account without even logging into the site. I was able to pick a username for my account (Heartbourne naturally) and had the ability to use the new features. My favorite feature are the user profiles. You can download their addon and application which tracks your activities in WoW. After entering in your user key from wow.com into the addon, it can track quests completed, zones entered or left, achievements, raids, leveling, and guild membership. You can write one line messages that are like tweets. After logging off, simply run the bundled application to upload your data. Users can "follow" or "friend" each other, like on Twitter, to receive updates from their friends and fans. I highly suggest that if you plan to use the addon that you think carefully about what information you want to submit. Chances are nobody cares about what zones you enter or leave, and it will spam your profile pretty badly, as evidenced by my escapade with the addon. I don't know why that feature is on by default; it really slowed down the upload process. The uploading application was slow and crashed a couple times for me, but that was with dozens of pages of zoning data. I was kind of hoping it would make an RSS feed or report back to Facebook or something with the updates. I don't really foresee myself using the WoW.com website much, and I already use Hearthstone to keep up with my friend's activities in WoW. My auto-updating Twitter is full of updates already and the updates are pushed out to people who are interested, instead of them having to sign into a website. Finally, you get your own blog and screenshot gallery setup. I think this may be a crowning feature if users decide to use it. Anyone can start blogging to a huge potential audience at a WoW-centric site. Its a great chance for new people to break the mold. If you are interested in following me, check out my profile. Do you think this is a worthwhile service, or would you rather spend your time on major blogs and in-game?

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